Hellspawn Series 1: Into The Dark
by shadowglove
Summary: Chloe made a pact to bring her father to back because his dying was her fault. Now the contract is nearly up, and yet she hasn't had the heart to tell Sam, her boyfriend, who has already lost his brother to a pact. He thinks there's still time.


Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Supernatural.

Written for my LiveJournal Paranormal25 150 Prompt Table. Prompt of the day #134: Spectral Dogs.

* * *

"You know you can't save me." She whispered, curled in his arms late at night. They'd made love, hard and fast this time, and had been lying side by side, silently, for hours. Still, she knew that he was awake, if only because she knew the sound of his breathing when he was in slumber.

"Don't say that." He whispered hoarsely, so determined, so desperate not to see her face the same fate that his brother had. "I'll find a way. I'll _never_ let those creatures touch you. We have time." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "We have time."

They didn't have time, she knew it all too well, but the blonde didn't have the heart to tell him that. He needed to believe that he could save her, that he could somehow break the deal, could save her from the hounds when they came to collect her soul.

"I'm ready, you know." She tried to make him see that, tried to make him realize that she knew what was going to happen and that she'd made peace with it.

In the blink of an eye he'd rolled them so that she was laying on top of him, looking at her eyes in fierce determination. "Even if you have to live in this room for the rest of your life in the safety of a goofer dust circle, I will _not_ let them take you."

Chloe looked down into his eyes and knew that if he had to spend the rest of his life trying to protect her in such a way, he would.

And she couldn't do that to him.

She couldn't make him spend the rest of his life trying to protect a mad woman, because that was what she would become, mad. Already the visions and the hallucinations were starting. She had less time than he thought, he didn't realize that already the hounds could be heard moaning their warnings, telling her that time was coming to an end and that they'd be coming for her soul.

The blonde closed her eyes and rested her cheek against his beating heart.

When she'd met Sam Winchester he'd been broken and defeated, him been on a dark path heading for destruction.

She didn't even remember well how they'd become what they were, or how he'd found out about her pact at the crossroads. All she knew was that he found out, and when he did he'd sworn never to let the hell hounds take another soul who was precious to him. He'd gotten out of his suicidal depression and become obsessed with his mission to save her. She loved him for it, but she needed to find a way to let him go, to make _him_ let _her_ go, so that when the inevitable happened, it wouldn't hurt him as bad. She needed to find a way to do this alone. She didn't want Sam there. Not when it happened. She wanted him far from her when the hounds came to drag her into the underworld, to make her hell's bitch.

She refused to let Sam see her be taken like he'd seen Dean. She _refused_ to let him hear her screams and her pleading...like he had Dean's.

She'd known the price when she'd gone to the crossroads, known what the demon would want from her, known what it meant kissing those lips, and yet the blonde had done so anyway, and she would have done so a millions times over again if it meant the life of her father. So _what_ if the demon had only given her a year instead of the ten that she usually gave out? It was _Chloe's_ fault that her father had been fired and unable to find work and then _killed_ when the man after Chloe had decided to settle for her father. The least she could have done for her father, after messing his life up so spectacularly, had been to do that.

"I wasn't strong enough to do what I should have when Dean..." Sam stopped, closing his eyes and tightening his hold on her. "But I'm strong enough _now_, and with my training I'll be strong enough to stop them when they come after you."

She frowned, looking into his face. "There's _nothing _a demon can teach you that is good, Sam. You can't trust Ruby, you just _can't_. She's lied to you before, remember? She told you that she could help you prevent Dean's death and it was all lies."

"She didn't lie. She _could_ have helped me if I had let her." Sam was beyond reasoning, his desperation to keep her alive and safe clouding his better judgement. "With Ruby's training I will be able to protect you and make sure they never touch you."

"_What_ is she teaching you, Sam?" Chloe asked, not for the first time. "_What_ do you do when you go out to train?"

"I can't tell you now, you know that, baby." He whispered, opening his eyes and looking up into her pleadingly. "I'll tell you when my training is complete, I promise you."

"I'm scared, Sam." She whispered.

He looked like he was going to break, holding her tighter. "Baby, I'll protect you."

"I'm scared for _you_." She hated herself as tears began to fall. "I don't want to be the reason that bitch corrupts you!"

"She's not corrupting me." Sam promised, bringing her hand to his face and pressing kisses to it. "I promise."

She closed her eyes tightly.

Outside the home, howls could be heard.

* * *

The howls were getting louder each night, and the hallucinations were getting harder to ignore as well. They were also getting harder to hide. Sam had given her a couple of suspicious looks the other night when she'd been sure that the door was knocked down and the hellhounds were charging...but she'd convinced Sam that she just wasn't feeling well and needed to go lay down for a while. He'd ushered her to the bed and went back to studying the darker occult volumes Ruby had gotten him, checking in on Chloe every half hour to see if she was feeling better and if there was anything she needed.

She didn't tell him that at least three more times that night she hallucinated hellhounds by her bed, silent, yet eyes expressive enough to tell her that time was running out and that she wasn't going to be able to run from them forever.

"You haven't told him the contract's almost up."

Sighing, Chloe turned from the book she'd been pretending to read, and looked at Ruby. "It's none of your business what I do or don't do."

The demon leaned against the wall, sending a look out of the window at Sam, who was talking to Bobby on the phone. "It's, a little cruel, don't you think?" Those dark eyes trained on Chloe. "He thinks you have at least five months left. You're lucky if you have five weeks."

She winced. "Four weeks. Roughly. Hopefully."

"He's trying to save you."

"We both know that he can't." The blonde snapped, standing up. "At least _I_ am not lying to him on that account."

The demon was silent, looking at her thoughtfully. "He'll do anything to keep the hellhounds from you."

"A fact that you're exploiting, don't try to deny it demon, you know it's true, I know its true. Hell. _Sam_ knows its true, but he's too desperate to admit to it." She ran a hand over her head. "He should never have met me. If he hadn't he would have never have listened to you, wouldn't be playing into your hand so fool-heartedly."

"It would have been more difficult, but he still would have accepted his destiny and what he has to do in this life." Ruby countered. "Sam is made for so many _great things_, Chloe. Why would you want him to not do that? Why would you stand in his way?"

"Because you're a _demon_, Ruby. And there's no such _thing_ as a 'good' demon, no matter how convincing or useful you've been to him up till now." Chloe replied truthfully, unafraid. "I've tried to make him see that, I've done all in my power, but he's so desperate with the illusion that you can help him save me that he doesn't listen to me at all."

"I don't want him _dead_, you know." The demon pouted, looking a little offended. "I _do_ want him to reach his full potential." "I know." The blonde admitted. "But why _is_ that? What _is_ Sam's full potential? What good will it do _you_? _That_ is what I fear."

"You'll understand it, later."

"There's no later." Chloe scoffed.

"Yes, actually, there is." Ruby responded. "When you're my _sister_."

For a moment Chloe couldn't understand, and then she did. Her eyes narrowed. "I won't become like you, Ruby."

"Do you think any of us wanted to be like this in the beginning?" The demon asked. "Do you think _any_ of those who went to the pit went wanting to be demons?" She paused. "Well, _some_ did, but most of us went for the most trivial of reasons, and we were tortured night and day for _eternity_. After a while, you nearly orgasm the _second_ they stop inflicting the pain because your body is so used to feeling agony that the second it doesn't it mistakes the relief for _ecstasy_."

Chloe gulped.

"And then, they begin to tempt you. 'Pick up the knife' they say. 'Do unto others as has been done unto you' they whisper. And some try to resist at first, the thought of doing what had been done to them sickening, but in the end...in the end you just want the pain to _stop_." Ruby whispered, stalking towards Chloe and lowering her voice, making this morbidly intimate as she stood so close to her. "In the end, you break. You will _always_ break, and you will pick up the knife and _you_ will be the one they bring the new souls to. You will do everything to them that was done to you, and you will _enjoy it_."

"_No_." Chloe whispered, shaking her head, refusing to believe it.

"Hell breaks everyone," Ruby promised, reaching up her hand to caress Chloe's hair playfully. "It broke me, it is breaking Dean, and it will break _you_."

She felt so sick at her stomach.

"I heard some demons discussing you." Ruby admitted, twirling her fingers through Chloe's hair. "They say that everyone's wondering how you're little ability will react when you're down in the pit. You don't stay dead. So will your body continue reviving after your soul's been torn out of it? Will it wake back up and become a soulless revenant? Will Sammy have to put you down again to keep your body from hurting anyone? Or will he be unable to do anything to it because it wears your face?"

"He'll put it down." Chloe tried so hard to believe her own words.

"Will he?" Ruby questioned them. "Will he _really_?"

"You have to make sure he does." Chloe reached forwards and grabbed hold of the front of Ruby's shirt. "You have to force him to!"

Ruby smiled at her. "Why would I?"

"Because I _tell_ you to." Chloe hissed, bringing the demon closer.

Ruby giggled. "You don't have the power to tell me what I can't or can do, Chloe. You never have. Maybe never will. But of course that all depends on how _well_ you adapt to life down below. Who knows. You might come back a stronger demon than me and be able to pull rank. If so, I'll be _happy_ to oblige."

The demon was taunting her, enjoying the pain this was making her go through.

Chloe looked outside, towards where Sam was still talking, when suddenly a terrifyingly real, demonic hellhound appeared at the window.

She cried out and let go of Ruby, throwing herself away from the window in time for the face to disappear.

It had been yet another hallucination.

"Tell you what. I'll do something for you." Ruby announced. "I'll do you a favor and make sure Sam's not here when it happens. If you haven't told him the date's coming by fast it's because you don't want him to know. I---I could find a reason for him to far from here when it happens and return when you're already dead and gone. How about that?"

Still shaky from the hallucination, Chloe looked up at the demon, eyes narrowed. "Why would you do that?"

"I just will." The demon replied. "Deal?"

Chloe sneered. "I don't plan on making anymore deals with demons."

Ruby chuckled. "_That_ humor's gonna make you popular in the pit." And with that she walked away.

* * *

One week to go.

The hallucinations were getting worse, and Chloe was seeing Ruby's face for what it really was.

She'd always known the demon was ugly on the inside...she just hadn't realized _how_ ugly.

Sam was beginning to suspect that something was going on, mostly due to the fact that she couldn't keep herself from screaming at night while trapped in her nightmares. It was as if she was having sneak-peeks of what it was going to be like in hell, and it was _agonizing_ in a way that no human could rightly explain in words. She would come awake screaming her lungs out, begging for it to stop, crying and crying. Sam would hold her tight, would whisper that everything was alright, that she was safe there with him and that he would never let anything hurt her. He would whisper that she was safe, that they still had a lot of time, for her to have faith.

She only cried harder.

"I don't understand why you're getting the nightmares so early on." Sam frowned as they lay down together in the darkness of the room. "Dean...he only got it close to his time."

"Maybe it's because of my power." Chloe held onto him tighter. "Maybe it makes me more sensitive to these sorts of things." "Maybe." He didn't sound very convinced. "Is there anything else that's been happening, other than the nightmares?"

"Of course not." She lied, pressing a kiss to his bare chest. "I would have told you."

He nodded. "I know, I just---worry about you. I----I'm about to make a breakthrough, I'm sure of it."

She smiled softly at his dedication. "Sam, I love you."

"And I love you." He whispered back, pressing an adoring kiss to her forehead.

"I know you don't like hearing this." She tried once more. "But if something happens and you can't stop it, I want you to know that it wasn't your fault. It was my fault for making the deal. I knew what I was getting into so you can't stop living or hunting just because I'm paying the price I agreed to pay."

"Chloe..." His voice was a warning.

She didn't heed it. "No, Sam, I don't want you on a downwards spiral like you were after Dean. I _love_ you."

The window rattled violently, the sounds of dogs snarling outside breaking into the moment.

Chloe closed her eyes and held onto Sam tightly.

"Chloe?" Sam asked, worried. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She answered when the sounds had stopped. "I---I just don't want to go, knowing that you're going to...that you..."

"Chloe, you're not going anywhere." He promised her.

"But if I _do_, don't be a fool for Ruby. You can't trust her, you _know_ you can't. She's a demon, and there's no such thing as a good demon." She paused. "Even...even if that demon wore the face of the person you loved the most it's not good and you can't trust it."

"What?" Sam asked, confused, not knowing what she was talking about.

"There's no such thing as a good demon, Sam." She tried to make him understand. "I---I don't know if you know this, but some people who go to hell...become demons."

Sam went still in her arms. "Who told you this?"

"Ruby." Chloe admitted. "And I did research. It's true. Hell, hell changes people. It takes away their soul, their humanity, and leaves them these deformed creatures."

"That's not going to happen to you."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I _do_." He snarled. "Because you're not going to hell! I--!"

Chloe kissed him.

He fought for a second before returning the kiss with angry fervor, turning them over so that she was trapped underneath him.

There was no more talking after that.

* * *

Sam hadn't wanted to go, but Chloe and Ruby had convinced him that there were innocents who needed to be saved, and that Chloe had things she needed to do so she couldn't join him on his hunt.

The blonde finished the letter she was leaving for him, asking him to forgive her and to live his life, to not let himself be a puppet, and to learn to love again.

It was hard to write that, to encourage him to find some woman, but she only wanted what was best for Sam, because she loved him that much.

Sealing the letter with a kiss, the blonde stood up when she heard the howling at the door.

Unlike every single victim, she walked _towards_ the sound instead of hurrying away.

Taking in a deep breath she opened the door, still safe within the goofer dust, and looked outside.

A legion of hellhounds stood waiting for her.

Closing her eyes tightly, willing herself to be brave, Chloe stepped out of the safety of the circle of dust and into the midst of the spectral dogs. "I'm ready."

Something bit into her skirt, and began to pull her along after it.

Chloe opened her eyes, realizing that instead of ripping her apart as she'd expected, the largest had just grabbed onto her shirt and begun to drag her away.

She wondered if this was a reward for not trying to run.

The blonde looked back, tears coming to her eyes as she saw her body, lying lifeless outside of the house she and Sam had made a home.

Another hellhound bucked her from behind with his nuzzle, telling her to look where she was going and to hurry up.

She nodded, and followed them into the dark.

* * *

**I know, I know, depressive. Sorry!**

**Review?**


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